1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a printer, and more particularly to a printer capable of managing images that are previously printed.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an electronic camera such as a digital camera records a captured image into a memory card, which is loaded in the camera. When the image recorded in the memory card is required to be printed, the image is transmitted to a printer.
A printer has been manufactured in which a memory card is directly loaded without a personal computer for directly reading and printing the image from the memory card. The printer of this type has a function to display on a monitor an operation screen related to printing. The operation screen is used, for example, for displaying in a table images recorded in the memory card by a thumbnail image and displaying an image that is desired to be printed among the recorded images. Selecting and displaying the image, and operation instruction and printing instruction for images can be performed in accordance with an operation menu, which is displayed on the operation screen.
In fact, the conventional printer is not provided with a means for storing images that have been printed before. Hence, even though a previously printed image is required to be reprinted, the user must go through a time-consuming process in which the user must select the memory card in which the image to be printed is recorded relying on the user's remembrance and insert the memory card into the printer, then find the desired image among the number of image files by following the operation menu.
It would be convenient if a desired image, which is previously captured from the memory card, could be easily found later regardless of having printing it or not.